Before And After: These near-infrared images of Uranus show the planet as seen without adaptive optics (left) and with the technology turned on (right). Adaptive optics show that the fuzzy ring in the left-hand image is actually a series of individual rings. It also reveals a number of small storms in the atmosphere of Uranus (to the right of the ring where it cross the planet).

Credit: UCLA Galactic Center Group/WMKO

This pair of images of the galactic center, the rotational center of the Milky Way galaxy, shows how adaptive optics technology can sharpen a telescope's view.
The image on the right shows the level of clarity achieved with Keck Obsevatory's current Adaptive Optics systems compared to the image without AO on the left. The position of the supermassive black hole at the very center of the galaxy is marked in the AO image.

2012: Keck I LGS first science with OSIRIS and a center launch laser system

Keck
Observatory’s Adaptive Optics systems are the most technologically advanced in
the world, and we have detailed plans to sustain this leadership for decades to
come, by implementing strategic upgrades described as Next
Generation Adaptive Optics (NGAO).

At its
full potential, Keck Observatory's Adaptive Optics (AO) systems will produce
images that almost completely eliminate atmospheric turbulence at infrared wavelengths, as
well as enable Keck Observatory's AO systems to correct at optical wavelengths for the first
time. In addition, NGAO will allow this
excellent image clarity to extend to much broader fields of view
that are not available to the current adaptive optics systems. NGAO accomplishes this by measuring
the atmospheric turbulence throughout the full cylinder of air that the light
passes through to reach the telescope, whereas today’s systems correct for
turbulence in a cone above the telescope. To achieve this improved coverage, NGAO
will have seven laser guide stars, compared to the single laser guide star with
the current systems.

A prime
area of study for Keck Observatory's NGAO upgrades will be the black hole at the center of our
galaxy and its environs. Using adaptive optics on the Keck II telescope, images
of unprecedented clarity of the galactic center have already allowed Keck Observatory astronomers to study the rapid motions of hundreds of stars in orbit around the supermassive black hole and establishing its
mass of four million times the mass of the Sun. NGAO, with its enhanced ability
to trace the motions of stars, will, for the first time, make available one of the Universe's best laboratory to test Einstein’s theory of General Relativity in the strongest gravitational
fields known to man. Other areas of research for NGAO will include: observing the formation
and evolution of today’s galaxies since the early universe; studying the
formation of disks and planets around nearby stars; investigating the origins
of our solar system; and measuring the dark matter in our galaxy and beyond.

Keck
Observatory is already recognized as one of the finest research institutions in
America. Given the scientific gains and its pathfinder technology for
future space- and ground-based telescopes, NGAO is nothing less than the
reinvention of the telescope and the full realization of Keck Observatory’s promise to
bring a deeper understanding and inspiration about the universe and our place
in it.